From the Narrow Desert: Etteilla

Showing posts with label Etteilla. Show all posts

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Slow Joe Crow on the banjo

After posting about how Joe Biden was presaged by a record released in 2009 and by the Dr. Seuss character Slow Joe Crow, I suddenly remembered this:

This is Steve Martin's 2009 bluegrass album The Crow. The cover features a banjo-playing crow, with headgear distinctly reminiscent of Slow Joe Crow or a plague doctor. The back cover reveals that the crow is secretly controlled by hidden machinery under the table.

Incidentally, Martin's cover art also syncs nicely with my recent post (at The Magician's Table) on Etteilla's version of the Magician card:

Notice the hat of the figure on the table. Also notice that the card's name is Maladie -- "sickness" -- tying in with the plague-doctor/birdemic angle.

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Update:

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

A gallery of early or otherwise historically important Magician cards

This is primarily for my own future reference, but I post it here because others may find it helpful as well. These are the highest-quality images I have been able to find for each of the cards. They are in something approximating chronological order, keeping in mind that most of the dates are estimates.

I am indebted to Andy's Playing Cards for providing innumerable leads, and to Tarot of Marseilles Heritage for many of the images of cards from that tradition. If I've missed anything important, please inform me in the comments.

(Note: The image of the Oswald Wirth card I had originally posted was incorrect. I replaced it with the correct one on November 23, 2019. The "restored" Jean Dodal card was replaced with the original on November 25, 2019.)